Gallery: Best and worst dads from TV and film

Best: Heathcliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show)Probably television’s most revered dad remains Bill Cosby’s Heathcliff Huxtable, the obstetrician and devoted family man at the centre of The Cosby Show.

Screen shot
/ NBC

Worst: Darth Vader (Star Wars)Okay, so he stops being evil right before he dies. But most of the time he’s bordering on diabolical. I mean, he cut his own son’s hand off, after all. That and he destroys planets. And he likes to strangle his subordinates by pinching his finger and thumb together in their general direction. Gotta love the Dark Side.Screem shot
/ Twentieth Century Fox

Best: Carl Fox (Wall Street)Bud Fox’s dad (Martin Sheen) is the principled union leader who wants the best for his son, Bud (Charlie Sheen). Too bad his son betrays him and becomes the protégé of the most ruthless takeover man on Wall Street.Screen shot
/ Twentieth Century Fox

Worst: Dexter Morgan (Dexter)Dexter Morgan is great with kids. A real hoot, even. The trouble is, he’s also a serial killer. Most of the time, he’s too busy out on his "extra-curricular activities" to make time to be a dad. And yet still, after all this time, no one suspects a thing.Screen shot
/ Showtime

Best: Clark Griswold (The Vacation movies)Whenever you think of a road trip, it's hard not to picture Chevy Chase's all-knowing dad driving the family station wagon to the latest wacky destination, sometimes opting for extreme measures to ensure the Griswold clan gets where they want to go.Screen shot
/ Warner Bros.

Worst: Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)Dumb, lazy, inept, selfish and obnoxious. All are words that aptly describe the patriarch of TV's longest-running sitcom. And while he's often well-intentioned, his execution is just horrendous. Most of the time, he leave his kids horribly embarrassed by his actions.Screen shot
/ Twentieth Century Fox

Best: Martin Brody (Jaws)The police chief of a small New England beach town, Brody (Roy Scheider) is determined to keep vacationers safe from a menacing great white shark. But his primary motivation is to protect his family and particularly his son, Michael.Screen shot
/ Universal Pictures

Worst: Tony Soprano (The Sopranos)For all his lying, cheating and stealing, New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano would still undoubtedly insist that he does a good job of keeping work and family separate. But how good a dad can you be when most of the time, you're too busy "whacking" people (or ordering people whacked) to be there for them? That and the fact that he has a pathological inability to remain faithful to his wife.Screen shot
/ HBO

Best: Louis CK (Louie)It's always debatable how much of the real Louis CK makes up the sad-sack divorcee we see in the show, Louie. But as lonely and desperate as he seems in the show, his greatest moments are the ones he spends with his kids. No matter what he's going through personally or professionally, he remains a dedicated dad.Screen shot
/ FX Productions

Worst: Vic Mackey (The Shield)Vic's the textbook "dirty cop": on the take from gangs and drug lords and breaking every rule imaginable. He's shown he'll even kill a fellow police officer just to save his own hide. And while he'll occasionally go the distance to help his family, most of the time he's just trying to shuttle them out of harm's way.Screen shot
/ FX Network

Best: Daniel Hillard (Mrs. Doubtfire)After losing custody of his kids in a divorce, Hillard (Robin Williams) disguises himself as a female housekeeper in order to spend more time with his children than the court-allotted visits would permit.Screen shot
/ Twentieth Century Fox

Worst: Walter White (Breaking Bad)The high school teacher-turned meth cook extraordinaire committed an untold number of heinous crimes during his descent from Mr. Chips to Scarface, each worse than the one that preceded it. But the worst thing about it all is his repeated claim that everything he did – no matter how appalling, no matter how many people were hurt or killed as a result – was done for the sake of his family.Screen shot
/ AMC

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